1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to furniture and more particularly to a foldable chair and step ladder combination.
2. Description of Related Art
Over the years, attempts at combining chairs and ladders into a single piece of furniture have met with limited success. Many of the designs resulted in uncomfortable chairs, limited height ladders, stability concerns and/or cumbersome operability. Often the designs were overly complicated with limited use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,950,591 to Bing discloses a chair ladder wherein the front portion of the seat rotates upward and around a front pivot point until it rests on the rear portion of the seat to form a ladder. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 1,755,680 to Wuest illustrates another variation of a chair ladder wherein the rear legs act as both the back of the chair and as legs of the ladder. Similar to the chair disclosed above, the legs and seat portion of the chair pivot about a hinge located at the front of the seat portion to transform the device into either a chair or a ladder. While both patents illustrate a device capable of converting a chair into a ladder, neither device enables folding the entire assembly for storage. U.S. Pat. No. 1,362,051 to Stayman illustrates a stepladder chair that can be folded for storage. The device, however, is complicated and includes a plurality of pivotable links interconnecting the various legs and supports all of which must be folded in a precise complicated manner to transform the device between a ladder and a chair.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a chair ladder combination that is inexpensive to make, comfortable to use as a chair and to use as a ladder for climbing to heights above the normal height of a chair seat. It is another object of this invention to provide a foldable chair and ladder combination that folds into a relatively compact condition for easy transport and storage. It is a further object of this invention to provide a chair ladder combination comfortable to use as a chair without the need of specifically modifying the shape of the chair for sitting purposes.